I don't see either Salem or West Branch joining the NE8, neither one has played any NE8 teams on a regular basis on their OOC schedule. Salem hasn't played one NE8 team on their OOC schedule in the last 5 years and only played them when forced to in the playoffs, whereas West Branch played I think only 2 NE8 teams in the last 5 years on their OOC schedule. I don't think either Salem or West Branch have any interest in joining the NE8 when they had very limited interest playing any NE8 teams on their OOC schedules in the last 5 years. I'm really surprised that neither one of them wanted a 2 year home/away deal with any NE8 team.
Jefferson out of the NE8 starting 2023.
- Thread starter ICBM
- Start date
Yes they have played each other when they were in the TAC as a conference game but not since then. No interest on Hubbard's part since then.
330Football
Well-known member
I don’t agree with it either, but Hubbard wouldn’t leave the conference with nowhere to go and def won’t move up to play the other big schools in the area so they’re in a bad spot and will just deal with it if a smaller school joins
330Football
Well-known member
WB had Struthers and girard on 2 year deals within the last 5 years. One year was cancelled due to Covid
OhioGuy4
Well-known member
If this happens to the NE8, might as well just remake the old TAC, the whole purpose of that break up was over the huge size difference in schools from top to bottom. Adding another small school that won't compete in most sports to the NE8 doesn't make sense at all. The only reason a small school like South Range works is because they are currently competitive in most sports.
330Football
Well-known member
Thing is most schools are getting smaller, especially in the Youngstown/Warren areas. Poland was almost double the size back then compared to now. One division difference is nothing
McMurphy
Well-known member
Exactly. No D1 schools now. Only a handful of D2, and D3. The Mahoning Valley is a D4 to D7 area.
New projections for this upcoming season are Boardman and Fitch will be D1, should know soon
Spread All Day
Well-known member
Not true at all. They were in the same tier of the aac in 2009-2011 I believe as well.
...what about Salem? As I've stated on a different post, they haven't played any NE8 team in the last 5 years unless they were forced to in the playoffs. Do any of you actually think they would want to join the NE8? My guess is no...
McMurphy
Well-known member
I'm presuming the only reason is, that they are expanding D1 to more teams
Spread All Day
Well-known member
Small school I heard isn’t worth mentioning now because it was not true simply put.
we’ll see if they add an 8th member. Doubtful as of now.
we’ll see if they add an 8th member. Doubtful as of now.
305NoTomato
Well-known member
Ron Jon only schedules down out of league. He would never play half of those teams in NE8. Look back at his OOC schedule back to 2016. United, EL, EP, Beaver, etc.. Never schedules up, only down... or a weak equal sized like EL or Beaver.
That could actually be true, 2011 is going to be 11 years ago this coming fall.
Didn't Struthers just recently play Liberty for 4 consecutive years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018? Liberty's stadium is very small, Hubbard's band took up almost half of the visiting stands as I remember.
All good points, that means no to joining the NE8.
kingpin2010
Well-known member
Projections from where? Both Fitch and Boardman's base enrollments dropped pretty significantly from last count and neither have much in the way of CB numbers. D1 would have to expand pretty significantly for that to happen.
Spread All Day
Well-known member
Yup it was great. Beat the dog out of them
Redzone Blitz
Active member
The sweet number is 8 and they already have that in both tiers.
Didn't Liberty stadium be bigger? I remember going to a game probably mid 90's when my son's school Mogadore Field played there. Thought seating was pretty big on visitors side.
Redzone Blitz
Active member
This site lists 3,000 seating capacity
330Football
Well-known member
I def don’t see Salem joining, because when they were in a conference with most teams in the ne8 they were really bad. I don’t see any teams joining unless their ad wants to make their job easier for easy scheduling
Spread All Day
Well-known member
I never found it to be small.
Navagante
Active member
That’s what she said lol. Sorry I had too
Spread All Day
Well-known member
It’s average.
Spread All Day
Well-known member
When Canfield beats them by 50 points I doubt they will make the return trip just my thoughts.
330Football
Well-known member
It’ll be like 35-7 something like that
Most of Liberty's seating would be on their home side. Hubbard's band is around 200 and had to sit on the visitor's side. They took up between a half or over a third of those bleacher seats. If those numbers are correct (3000) I'm willing to guess it's 2500 for the home side and 500 on the visitors side. Liberty's home side is a nice size.
kingpin2010
Well-known member
From what I remember, Liberty's stadium is no smaller than other NE8 schools like Range, Struthers, Lakeview, and Girard. Also I am not sure I buy that capacity number in relation to others, according to that site Liberty's stadium has less capacity than Ridge and I know that is not accurate and that Howland is only 2200.